WHY AND HOW CONTENT ADD VALUE TO YOUR WEBSITE AND ATTRACT YOUR DESIRED TARGET
Isabella Gosetto – March 2021
Introduction
Lately we hear more and more about content marketing;
Although the term is quite intuitive, it is not necessarily so simple to define what it really refers to and what it implies in practice;
In this short guide, we will try to clarify the term content marketing and, above all, the steps necessary to implement a proper content marketing strategy!
For those who are curious to understand the story behind content marketing, here is an extremely interesting video that will help you understand where this discipline comes from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OHgMMpGLzk&t=32s.
Let’s first of all give a definition, so that the concept is clear to everyone, content marketing “is a strategic marketing approach that relies on the creation and distribution of valuable content in order to attract a target audience to your website or social network, build a relationship, and ultimately increase sales.”
Content marketing is therefore the real key for a successful SEO strategy!
Valuable content, together with links are the main pillars of the SEO strategy success;
This is even more true from when Google launched new updates to its algorithm based on a greater efficiency (thanks to the BERT system) to understand the natural language people use in their research (Dave, 2021).
“Content marketing is so important that 88% of B2B content marketers agree that creating content makes their audience view their organization as a credible and trusted resource” (2019 B2B and B2C Content Marketing Statistics, 2019 in Dave, 2021).
Some figures from the Content Marketing Institute will help you get a better picture of the importance of content and content marketing.
- “Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates 3x as many leads” (McCoy, 2017 in Dave, 2021).
- “Content marketing has lower up-front costs and deeper long-term benefits than paid search” (McCoy, 2017).
- Content marketing helps overcoming the problem of ads that may not reach the target considering that “615 million devices now use ad blockers, which means your ads [may not be seen by a great portion of your target]” (McCoy, 2017 in Dave, 2021).
- “Small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads than those without blogs” (McCoy, 2017).
- “Content marketing rakes in conversion rates 6 times higher than other methods” (McCoy, 2017).
Content represents therefore the present and future of any successful digital strategy, but how do we implement a successful content marketing strategy?
We are going to list and explain the 4 core content marketing strategy steps any digital marketing and company should understand in order to implement a content strategy that pays back!
The Content Marketing Strategy Steps
As clearly described in her Content Marketing strategy guide, Valentina Pacitti points out the most important steps any company should follow to implement a successful content marketing plan.
Step 1: Analyze your niche
It is of utmost importance that you run an insightful analysis before developing any content marketing plan.
What does this analysis refer to? The best analysis that can be run in this case is the so-called SWOT ANALYSIS.
The acronym stays for STRENGTHS – WEAKNESSES – OPPORTUNITIES – THREATS.
We are talking about taking “a picture” of your current situation, both inside and outside, to understand what may need to be changed internally but also what are our strengths, to understand what is going on around us to define opportunity spaces.
Step 2. Define your goals
After you have a clear definition of all the possibilities inside your organization and in the environment outside, it is important that you target your effort towards specific goals.
Content marketing, as well as every other marketing strategy, can be applied to a variety of purposes.
It is therefore important, not to waste precious energies and budge, to define specific, measurable objectives and KPIs.
When setting goals and KPIs always use the SMART method, which states that the goals you set should be Specific, Measurable, Relevant, Achievable, and Time-Based.
Step 3. Determine your target
Another extremely important step lies in determining your target;
In order to create valuable and impactful content it is extremely important that you understand what type of public you are directing your efforts towards.
It can be useful to create the so called CUSTOMER PERSONAS, representations of the ideal or possible client, to understand their characteristics, needs, desires and draw important insights on the type of content that would better suit their peculiarities.
Step 4. Create a content plan
Once your ideal target has been identified, times are ready to focus on the content!
Content does not only refer to texts though;
Content includes images, video, testimonials; It is also important to understand whether it is better to create longer or shorter content.
Another extremely important point that has to be underlined is to develop a SEO-friendly content structure.
It is necessary to write good and rich content containing the words for which we want our site to be found and that we think people will research when looking for a solution that our company may offer; in the same way, links are important, a site linked by many other sites is very important.
The 5 key aspects or elements in which a SEO expert can work to create seo-useful content are:
- Url – site address and choice of name
- Title
- Meta description
- Images
- Links
As we can see, all this content (images included) represent the basin of contents from which the search engines will draw in order to seek the best solution to the requests made by customers through the search on a search engine.
Step 5. Plan the distribution of your content
Once your content has been defined and created, there must be one more fundamental step: planning the distribution of your content.
It is important to understand what time every type of content will be published;
It is therefore pivotal to do some research to determine what are the ideal hours for our content to be seen by our target.
There are several tools available to facilitate the content distribution process, such as SEMrush’s Social Media Toolkit or Hootsuite, really comprehensive tools that not only allow you to plan ahead your social media postings, but also allows you to discover social trends and monitor your performance and that of your rivals.
Conclusion
Of course these are only general guidelines and every strategy must be adapted to the company’s needs and core business;
The 5 fundamental steps include:
Step 1: Analyze your niche
Step 2. Define your goals
Step 3. Determine your target
Step 4. Create a content plan
Step 5. Plan the distribution of your content
Nevertheless, clarifying the above points, defining a corporative strategy that helps everyone have a clear view on the points that must be touched and the plan schedule, is essential not only for the single content campaign outcome, but also for a more comprehensive and coordinated marketing effort in which content drives the values and missions both for internal and external stakeholders.